Harry Potter anyone?

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biandblessed said:
Harry Potter, love it, hate it? Good, bad, wrong, right?
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**Have read the first 40 pages of book two - no strong impression - definitely not to be compared with Tolkien. Whether the author is Christian or opposing Christianity, or whatever, is totally irrelevant - if our reading were to be restricted only to what favoured & or was compatible with Christianity [in some form]****, we would have to ignore most literary classics :eek:: most literature, indeed. 😦 For Brother Billy-Bob the “Ayyy-men !”- shouter, ****or Father Aloysius-Mary the liberal-basher, this may be no privation - but it is not how to read. **​

Only people ignorant of how literature & its content functions would make a fuss of the “magic”, because they are in that respect functionally illiterate.** So, to be consistent, they ought to accuse admirers of Hitchcock of plotting murder, & readers of “Gone With the Wind” & “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” of plotting treason & the restoration of slavery. :mad: 😦 **

When people make such absurd judgements, they show only that they expect all literature to work in the same way - as though “The Red Badge of Courage”, “The Silmarillion”, & the Psalms were the same kind of written matter serving the same purpose. :mad: 😦 😦 😦 Since such people regard all fiction as lies anyway, they will not know most of these books, unless they think they are records of fact; to their impoverishment.
 
Indifferent.

It’s not great literature, but it’s not bad.

It takes place in a different universe where there is magic, but apparently no deity (except for the use of “God” as a punctuation mark in speech).

I can’t see where it teaches Satanism, but then some kids will take and have taken anything and run with it. I can remember back in the late '60s teenage girls meeting in bedrooms, kneeling before posters of the Beatles, and praying to John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

DaveBj
 
Definitely over-rated. It’s too bad that J.K. was not serializing her work in the 1840s. . .a lot of H.P. would lend itself to that genre, and she would have been able to tie up all the loose threads she left. I also feel that it is a great pity that she did not stick with her ‘original’ story and allowed herself to make major, critical changes based on fan reaction, etc. because it pretty much destroyed the body of the work. And she really, really,** really **needed a researcher and a much better editor who would have caught the critical errors she made with dates, kept her from anachronisms like having Dudley playing with a game system that was not ‘available’ at the time he had it, caught the errors of chess master Ron, etc.

Ghoti --one small correction --it’s Brother Cadfael (not Father). Ever catch the BBC productions? With Derek Jacobi?
 
Tantum_ergo said:
Ghoti --one small correction --it’s Brother Cadfael (not Father). Ever catch the BBC productions? With Derek Jacobi?
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Ooops – brain hiccup.

I have all of the books, right up to the last one, A Rare Benedictine.

I have seen the BBC productions – a few anyhow – and rather enjoyed them. For all their faults, BBC does period stuff rather well. And Sir Derek, IMO, does very well at playing the Cadfael – world-weary, compassionate, contemplative, paternal, but able to flashsome fire when he wants to. It looks to me like he could have swung a sword in his younger days.

As a side note, I think there were a number of inspired castings in various shows, and now when I read the books again, I picture the actor in my mind’s eye:
  • Jacobi as Cadfael
  • Jeremy Brett as Holmes
  • David Suchet as Poirot
 
I read books 1, 2, and 4 completely, and little bits from the others. They’re good, but I’m not crazy enough to finish the series. (Sadly, the spoilers are all over the place so I already know how it ends).

The books are certainly not anti-Christian. They’re just good works of fiction containing fairy tale-style magic. My personal opinion is that if a child reads the books then gets involved in Wicca or the occult, he’s got bigger problems than Harry Potter.
 
I’ve read them all, they were enjoyable. Not Tolkien in any sense, but decent. My daughter has read the first book and we talked about it.

Good: They have helped many kids enjoy reading

Bad: Parents need to be familiar with the books to be able to talk to the kids about the books. (Maybe this is a good as well)
 
Ah Harry Potter my Favorite topic!
(cracks knuckles)

Okay here is the problem with Harry.

Harry is a wizard who gains power for powers sake. That is it he wants to be the most powerful wizard there is and he will use almost any means necessary to get it. This include lieing cheating and stealing.

The other thing is for books that falls into its age category there is allot of unnecessary violence in the books.
Yes we know the evil zombie dude attacked and killed the unicorn we really didn’t need to have a description of the blood guts and other things dripping from the abominations mouth.

Kids book JK, KIDS books! Say the unicorn is mortally wounded and a bloody zombie turned to Harry. End sentence!

That is my problem with harry potter.
 
Ghoti said:
Now I’ve never read War & Peace or Summa Theologica, and I’m obviously not nearly as erudite as many of the posters here – but I do read, consider myself a fairly good writer, and what skills I do have I can ultimately trace back to Frank, Joe, Chet, and Biff.
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Ah yes, that takes me back! I still have hardcover editions of the first 10 or 12 books. Not first edition or anything, but still pretty old. 🙂

I agree. Not every written work needs to be 5 star, Pulitzer-Prize-worthy literature. There is a place for fluff.
 
Fine with me. It’s definitely written in a way that should appeal to most people. I like her use of metaphors, very straight to the point, entertaining and doesn’t refer to anything vague and unknown to 75% of her readers.

I didn’t notice any demon names. The actual spells are just reworked latin words. There may be similarities to some aspects of actual witchcraft but the main sin/danger, that is, subservience of will to a negative entity in exchange for something, does not seem to be present or encouraged unless you count Voldie and his Death eaters. I personally think the magic in HP has more in common with super-hero comics (X-Men) than witchcraft. Basically, some people are born with abilities of no fault of their own and the magical community takes these people in for training of their powers lest they go amuck.

Real witchcraft usually involves appealing (worship) to some entity for power which is of course a sin.

The link below clears up some of the misunderstandings on some aspects of the series

beholdaphoenix.blogspot.com/2007/06/harry-potter-what-does-david-j-meyer.html

I do have problems with certain aspects of the series. Book 7 has a lot of snogging (kissing) and I’m not sure if Euthanasia is somewhat indirectly encouraged. There’s also instances of Harry saying he wants to kill Voldemort with Dumbledore who’s supposed to be JKR’s incarnation of goodness, practically assenting. I think it would be better if Dumbledore encouraged Harry to stop Voldemort but said a word or two against revenge and a desire to kill.

But for the record, the last book is a lot more Christian than I expected.
 
Reynardus said:
I personally think the magic in HP has more in common with super-hero comics (X-Men) than witchcraft. Basically, some people are born with abilities of no fault of their own and the magical community takes these people in for training of their powers lest they go amuck.
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You know, that’s a good point. Hogwarts is basically equivalent to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. In both Potter and X-Men, some people are born with these powers and some are not. The school is there to help those to channel that power they already possess into positive avenues.
 
Dominicus_van said:
Kids book JK, KIDS books! Say the unicorn is mortally wounded and a bloody zombie turned to Harry. End sentence!
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Yes, they are kids books. BUT the kids are meant to GROW With Harry, not read all 7 at the age of 11. The people who started reading HP (book 1 published in 1997) when it was first realeased had to grow up with the books. So by the time Deathly Hallows came about (2007) the kids were all 10 years older. 🤷
I love these books. If my child wants to read them, then he can read them one year at a time :D.
 
I have all 7, but my enthusiasm for the series was spoiled when I read spoilers for book 5 and book 6. Book 3 is my favorite cuase of Sirius Black. I already told my dad he’s seeing the 6th movie ALONE cause I refuse to see it (I know what happens).

Plus, with Ms. Rowling coming out and declaring Dumbledore was GAY (and I don’t mean HAPPY) it made me not care about the series that much anymore.
 
DH and I both love Harry Potter, and re-read the books constantly.
Plus, with Ms. Rowling coming out and declaring Dumbledore was GAY (and I don’t mean HAPPY) it made me not care about the series that much anymore.
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Actually, this does not bother me at all. In fact, I think it’s a great. Here’s a shining example of a chaste homosexual - and one who has constant contact with children from 11 to 18, and never molests them. An unselfish giver to his community. I wish all homosexuals were like him. What a good example for kids struggling with sexuality!

I also think she’s a pretty good writer. She may not be Jane Austen or Paul Scott, but she equals E. Nesbit, another favorite of mine.

By the way, Dominicus Van, in the unicorn scene, there are no “guts and other things” dripping. Just blood. “dribbled down its front,” as a matter of fact. I just checked.

DH and I are always complaining about the lazy house elves around here. They don’t cook, or clean, or anything. Maybe we should bribe them with butterbeer. 😃

Heart of Jesus, patient and full of mercy, have mercy on us.

Ruthie
 
I loved the books. I have read all of them atleast once and a few more than once.
Dominicus_van said:
Ah Harry Potter my Favorite topic!
(cracks knuckles)

Okay here is the problem with Harry.

Harry is a wizard who gains power for powers sake. That is it he wants to be the most powerful wizard there is and he will use almost any means necessary to get it. This include lieing cheating and stealing.
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This contradicts the books. You could consider the fact that there are several times in the series where he risks his life for others. Or you could simply consider how the series ends.

Do you like the story Les Miserables? Using your standards it shouldn’t be read because he spent is whole life lieing about who he was. Jean val Jean was willing to do what was necessary for freedom.
 
Ruthie said:
By the way, Dominicus Van, in the unicorn scene, there are no “guts and other things” dripping. Just blood. “dribbled down its front,” as a matter of fact. I just checked.
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Thank you for checking that. When I read that post, I thought “That doesn’t seem familiar” but I wouldn’t put it past myself to have forgotten. 🙂
 
I don’t want to know if it is sinful to watch the movies or read the books. I was just wondering who liked it and who doesn’t.
 
It’s not bad, but there are more productive ways to spend your time (that is, if someone wants to read it, I would not discourage them. There’s really nothing too terrible about the books. Like all literature, it largely depends on how you interpret it as the reader) 🤷
 
Tim_Kirchoff said:
It’s not bad, but there are more productive ways to spend your time (that is, if someone wants to read it, I would not discourage them. There’s really nothing too terrible about the books. Like all literature, it largely depends on how you interpret it as the reader) 🤷
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What would be a better book in your opinion?
 
danaemariejoan said:
What would be a better book in your opinion?
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The Bible. The Catechism. 🤷

(I could stand to follow my own advice, actually. Every moment we have is a gift. It is up to us how we use it, and I could stand to use mine better…)
 
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